All posts tagged NDRC

Continuing a series of video summaries from China’s annual political conclave, Dow Jones deputy China bureau chief Aaron Back discusses the crucial take-aways from days two and three of the National People’s Congress parliamentary meeting in Beijing. Read More »

The National Development and Reform Commission is the wheel around which the Chinese domestic economy spins. Once known as the State Planning Commission, it’s in charge of everything from setting the price of gasoline that motorists use to approving steel projects that employ tens of thousands.

So that made the, uh — let’s call it, idiosyncratic — planning at the NDRC’s press conference at the National People’s Congress on Wednesday all the more puzzling. While 100 or so reporters and photographers milled about waiting for the NDRC’s chairman to show, the auditorium’s mood music –sans lyrics –ranged from West Side Story’s “America” (“I like to be in America/OK by me in America”) to Evita’s “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” to Phantom of the Opera’s “Music of the Night” (“Softly, deftly, music shall caress you”). Read More »

Chinese premier Wen Jiabao opened the 2013 plenary session of the National People’s Congress on Tuesday, delivering his last government work report before making way for successor Li Keqiang. Before Mr. Wen took the stage, the government released advance copies of his report in English and Chinese — along with copies of two other big reports, the Ministry of Finance Budget Report and Draft Plan for National Economic and Social Development.

Chinese state media typically don’t post the documents online until much later, so in keeping with tradition, China Real Time has scanned all three reports in both languages and uploaded them to the WSJ website in text-searchable format. Shakespeare this isn’t, but buried in the bureaucratese are important indications of how Beijing views the country’s economy and what it plans for the future.

Faced with a raft of less-than-stellar statistics, China’s policymakers are changing gears, placing the emphasis firmly on growth. Evidence of the shift, which initially lifted spirits on stock markets in Japan and Hong Kong this week, has been welcomed around the world. It evoked memories of late 2008 and early 2009, when a massive Chinese stimulus program helped keep the global economy from sliding completely off the rails in the wake of the U.S. subprime lending crisis.

The Occupy Wall Street phenomenon may not have made its way to China – groups of angry people face considerable hurdles occupying anything in Beijing and Shanghai – but that’s not to say Chinese citizens are not hopping mad at their banks. Still, while governments elsewhere have seemingly been at a loss for how to address the occupiers’ complaints, Beijing might be on the cusp of unleashing its corps of crack bureaucrats in the cause of cooling the rage of frustrated depositors.

Their objective: reining in the barrage of fees banks charge customers. Read More »

The National Development and Reform Commission said Monday it would raise domestic retail fuel prices starting Tuesday by 600 yuan ($95) a metric ton following the surge in global energy prices this year. The move, expected for some time, is a sign that Chinese policymakers are less worried about inflation, and also cuts the oil companies some slack on the refining losses they’ve been making given their selling price lags market reality. Read More »

The 2012 plenary session of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, is now officially open, which means the year’s “big three” reports – the Work on the Report of the Government, the Ministry of Finance Budget Report, and Draft Plan for National Economic and Social Development – have finally been delivered.

As we did last year, China Real Time has scanned English and Chinese versions of all three reports as text-searchable PDFs and uploaded them to the WSJ website (official reports typically aren’t posted online until much later). While the reports — full of bureaucratic and political jargon — can make for soporific reading, they are nevertheless an important resource for China watchers seeking to gain insight into Beijing’s assessment of the economy and plans for the coming year.

China is more interested in investing directly in Europe than buying European Union debt with its colossal foreign currency reserves, a senior civil servant said Tuesday.

Wang Yiming, a vice director at the National Development and Reform Commission’s macroeconomic research institute, said at the EU-China forum in Brussels that internal discussions about how to invest the country’s $3.2 trillion of reserves are leaning in this direction. Read More »

Perhaps it’s a measure of the self-doubt now afflicting the developed economies, but the halls and corridors at the World Economic Forum in Dalian this week have been filled with giddy conversation about the triumph of Chinese economic planning.

One speaker from South Africa breathlessly described the Chinese economic system of state-capitalism as “crisis-proof,” and said it was shifting the debate over economic models on the African continent. A French corporate executive was overheard lauding the merits of China’s Five-Year plans. Not perfect, he conceded, “but better than no plan at all – which is what we have in France.”

It took a Chinese speaker to bring the gathered ranks of the “New Champions” – delegates, as they’re more commonly known – down to earth at Summer Davos. Read More »

Opening day of the National People’s Congress could be called report day, with the release of long documents from Premier Wen Jiabao, the Finance Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). While these reports are dry and full of bureaucratic and political jargon, they also offer a comprehensive view of the government’s assessment of the economy, and its plans for this year.

In past years, the official reports haven’t been posted on the Internet until much later. China Real Time has scanned in English and Chinese versions of all three reports in text-searchable form.

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China Real Time Report is a vital resource for an expanding global community trying to keep up with a country changing minute by minute. The site offers quick insight and sharp analysis from the wide network of Dow Jones reporters across Greater China, including Dow Jones Newswires’ specialists and The Wall Street Journal’s award-winning team. It also draws on the insights of commentators close to the hot topic of the day in law, policy, economics and culture. Its editors can be reached at chinarealtime@wsj.com.